In this episode, we discuss the controversy surrounding the use of the call to prayer loudspeaker at public events in the city of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. Mayor Mike Cromwell and his staff respond to concerns about the issue.
00:00:13.800And I have no, I think I believe in freedom of religion.
00:00:17.280I believe people should be able to practice whatever they want.0.97
00:00:21.260But I think keep it within your church, keep it within your mosque, keep it within the walls of your church.0.76
00:00:25.980It doesn't have to be broadcasted in the broader community.0.94
00:00:28.860and i think the big thing too is you know these are words and words can be interpreted in many
00:00:34.780different ways and other people can interpret the words of a prayer in certain ways which
00:00:42.460can be both positive and negative which could create i think division in the community so
00:00:48.060i guess the bottom line is just you know keep it in keep it in your church and let's just keep
00:00:53.180peace in the neighborhood and keep peace in our city and keep religion separate from the broader
00:00:57.980community if you want to have a parade if you want to have a picnic yeah that's fine of course0.76
00:01:04.700you know those are kind of one-offs right but you know to create something that's going to be
00:01:09.260consistent and it's going to be every friday and maybe it's going to be maybe not once a day maybe
00:01:14.060it ends up being twice a day and maybe it ends up being more days than one you know let's just sort
00:01:19.020of kind of step back and keep it in our churches and keep it in our places where we worship and
00:01:24.940that's as that's as simple as it is as soon as you say something negative about something like a
00:01:30.060prayer like this people are getting labeled as being bigots and racists which is wrong because
00:01:35.980soon and i think what's going wrong in our society as soon as people actually stand up and actually
00:01:42.300want to oppose something or don't agree with something all of a sudden they become racist
00:01:47.340and bigots i think that's wrong i think you know at the end of the day let's just
00:01:52.940Let's keep things in our own churches, in our own mosques, in our own buildings, you know what, let's just keep the peace and let's just move on because things have been fine, you know, so we don't need to create this sort of tension in our community.
00:02:06.260it's important to note that thankfully the municipal government does not have the authority
00:02:11.300to restrict charter of rights and freedoms today we're celebrating the 100th anniversary of the
00:02:15.860allegiance many of our grandparents fought or parents fought in the great wars so that everyone
00:02:20.500can have the right to express their religion to express their political views to dissent
00:02:25.460to assemble to proclaim and we respect those rights lest someone come and challenge their
00:02:31.540own way of thinking praying and voting and so today is an opportunity for people to ask questions
00:02:39.140to express their concerns but it's important to note the city council has no authority to
00:02:43.780issue these permits but nor do cities across canada have any right thankfully to restrict
00:02:48.980anything in the charter of rights and freedoms and i think that's an important point that needs
00:02:52.500to be made thank you oh i got a question for you sure um the authority to issue these permits is
00:02:58.820delegated from council to the police and uh just because there's nobody here to speak to this from
00:03:06.020the police do you have any sense or has there been any conversation about uh what criteria
00:03:12.020the police are going to be using in this case or any case uh to issue this noise permit when
00:03:17.540because there's a request in right now to extend the noise permit the chief of police and the
00:03:23.380the regina police issue permits under the existing noise bylaw and it is the parameters of that bylaw
00:03:29.460that they use and until the bylaws change that those are the rules by which they operate but
00:03:34.100it's important to note that should any city in canada choose to use their bylaws to restrict
00:03:40.660freedom of religion freedom of expression political association assembly proclamation
00:03:45.460that would violate the charter and the courts have restricted of that in an effort to protect
00:03:49.860the charter so to put it quite simply the city of rajana as municipal corporation has no authority
00:03:55.300to restrict religious freedoms or to change our noise bylaw in an effort to do that should we
00:04:00.500choose okay thanks does anyone come to with uh concerns to you like what kind of concerns do
00:04:06.020they have i'm sorry about almost all of the correspondence i've heard have been from out
00:04:10.980of province and out of country uh folks what i've heard from my residents uh are questions
00:04:16.500uh for context uh and i have found that in-person conversations over a cup of coffee or events like
00:04:22.900this are great we need more in-person conversations look we can disagree uh our community is changing
00:04:28.260change can feel uncomfortable change is also good uh and when you have an opportunity in person to
00:04:33.460talk um that's how community is built and so my constituents have asked questions uh which are
00:04:38.820are healthy today we have a survey on how to prayer because we have received some negative
00:04:48.100feedback through social media so we want to make sure in canada here we are respecting each other
00:04:55.380and we also want to understand like if we need to update anything we also are more than willing
00:05:02.260to do that uh the reason we are here at an in-person survey because we want to reach our
00:05:09.700neighbors and it's not too far for them also to be here so we thought we have a like a call to
00:05:16.500like prayer like open house like a survey in person so we also know the neighbors we also
00:05:22.260meet and greet you know if they have any comments they also can share in writing that also we would
00:05:28.020share with the Regina Police Service because they are the one also extending the permit as you know
00:05:34.580our the permit expired on last July 10 and we applied for extension before July 10 and we also
00:05:42.980are going to share the feedback that we will have from today's survey with the Regina Police Services
00:05:50.180and they're the one to decide. This is the first mosque in Canada then to broadcast the call to
00:05:56.260prayer? Yes, in Regina, like so far I know, right, and in Saskatchewan, like so far we know that this
00:06:06.900is the first mosque will be if we have the permit renewed from the Regina Police Services. This
00:06:15.220will be the first mosque that will have the call to prayer with a loud speaker. And why did you0.54
00:06:21.860decide to be the first one how did this come about it is not that we have decided to be a
00:06:27.780first one because we also did some research to see if we can have call to prayer with a loud
00:06:34.740speaker and then based on the research we find this area falling under the downturn mostly are
00:06:40.500the businesses and also um let the religious like the diversity right so all religions they have
00:06:49.780their own like the the method to to call the people to come to pray so that is why we thought
00:06:56.900that why not we are also having the call to prayer with a loud speaker because all most
00:07:04.500culture of the country they have right so that also will help us to prove that we have a freedom of